I am always looking for ways to make the school-to-home link. I think all too often we expect our parents to follow through, but forget that they are not always equipped with the necessary tools needed to do so. A lot of times parents don’t know where to look or even what to look for […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inHigh School, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy, Middle School, Social Studies
News Storytelling of Lincoln’s Assassination Will Engage Students
News stories are generally written in what is commonly known as the inverted pyramid style, in which the opening paragraph features the “5 Ws” of journalism: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. The reason for this style is so that the reader gets the most important information up front. Given the amount of time […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies
Ways to Review after the Test
The test is over. There are looks of relief in your students’ eyes, but the panic begins in your chest. Did they do well? Did they understand the concept? You grade as quickly as you can and hand back papers. The questions begin and the students chat comparing answers. There is never enough time for […]
Posted inFeatured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Instructional Strategies
Treat Students Like they are Going to College
All teachers have college degrees. It is no surprise that we want our students to experience higher education as well. We know the benefits of a college education and want better for them. If I honestly look around my classroom, even my AP classroom, I know statistics tell me that only a third will go to college […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Elementary School, English Language Learners, How to Fix Education, Instruction & Curriculum, Languages, New Teacher Bootcamp, The New Teacher Chronicles
Advice for New ESOL Teachers: Communicating with Home
By: Jon Hardy Dealing with parents is a very intimidating part of being a new teacher and the normal hurdles are intensified with parents who don’t speak English, or who are learning English themselves. These families may need teachers to put in extra effort to reach out to students but be unsure how to ask […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum
Formatting Tests for Skills Assessment
The days of “Who is the main character of the novel?” questions are over. Multiple questions should be challenging our students to think and use textual evidence to prove their answer. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, […]
Posted inCommon Core, How to Fix Education, Instruction & Curriculum, Languages, Literacy, Opinion, Science, Social Studies, Uncategorized
Teacher Collaboration: Scaffolding by Grade Levels
Is your department communicating? It seems like common sense, however, too many times teachers in the same subjects are not communicating from one level to the next. Students shouldn’t have to fill in gaps when they progress within a subject. Teachers need to move beyond the possessive view of students and begin to collaborate across […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Literacy
Making the Most of Book Reports
I require book reports from my students each month. These are projects that are done at home, but could just as easily be done in class. Before school starts I assign a book genre to each month. The crop of kids I have determines the format for the book. This year I happen to have […]